James Talarico has potential to create a fresh outlook about how democracy can work for the common good
James Talarico for Senate: Texas deserve better than Ken Paxton's moral rot | Endorsement
By The Editorial Board, Opinions from the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board
The political contest is set. The storyline, straight out of Hollywood. It’s as if, as Donald Trump likes to say, the candidates came from central casting.
An avowed ill mannered lout (Paxton) versus a man who doesn’t just resemble a Sunday school teacher, but who practices politics like the seminarian he is.
Ask Ken Paxton’s own supporters about his selfish moral infidelities and indictments. Ask about that stolen $1,000 pen. Or how he fired his employees after they reported him to the FBI for corruption, prompting a whistleblower lawsuit that stuck taxpayers with a $6.6 million bill. Oh, and ask about that impeachment that, though it did not end in conviction, was led by members of his own party.
Paxton voters know their guy reeks of moral rot. That he somehow earned millions while in public office. That his office delivered sweetheart deals in cases of child sexual abuse.
Paxton won anyway. As one man at a Paxton rally told a reporter, “We’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
The fish to be fried aren’t just Democrats but anyone who shows the slightest disloyalty to Donald Trump. Or even a hint of bipartisan pragmatism.
This one’s an easy call. The Houston Chronicle editorial board rejects Paxton’s self-serving depravity and his loyalty to Washington politics at the expense of everyday Texans. And we enthusiastically endorse his Democratic opponent, James Talarico.
Talarico, 37, is a former middle school teacher from Central Texas. In 2018, he flipped a Republican state House seat. While serving in the House, he studied for a master’s degree in divinity from a Presbyterian seminary. He looks like a grown-up Opie from the Andy Griffith Show. If his vibe were any more retro — any more earnest, any more squeaky-clean — he’d be in black-and-white, filmed at Desilu Studios.
Mr. Talarico is exactly what our state and our country need right now.
Optimism for a purple future: By tossing aside Cornyn, Trump and Republican primary voters have given Democrats a path out of the wilderness. Locked out of statewide office for over 30 years, they are eager to blockwalk the toss-up suburbs and open their pocketbooks. Talarico has already set an all-time record for fundraising for the first quarter of any U.S. Senate campaign ever — and that was before he faced such a slimy opponent, and before it seemed that Texas could possibly elect a Democrat to the Senate.
Now, some Democrats believe with Talarico at the top of the midterm ticket, they have begun an inexorable march to take back the state, to turn Texas blue. We hope that’s not the future of Texas. In our view, no party should have a lock on power. General elections should be an opportunity to hold our leaders accountable.
Surprisingly, Talarico agrees. Texas, he told us recently, “would look great in purple, because that's when you keep all politicians on their toes, right❓”
Forcing Republicans to compete — really compete — with Democrats, he said, would “force people to focus again on that 50-yard line of common-sense policies.”
In his appearances, his biggest applause line is still one he used when launching his campaign: “The biggest divide in our politics isn’t left versus right, it's top versus bottom.”
Those at the top, he says, too often abuse their power. That’s why he aims to ban congressional stock trading. To stop billionaires’ PAC money from having an outsized effect on our elections.
The choice is obvious.đź‘€ Both Republicans and Democrats should prefer a servant leader over a self-serving crook.
By The Editorial Board, Opinions from the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board
The political contest is set. The storyline, straight out of Hollywood. It’s as if, as Donald Trump likes to say, the candidates came from central casting.
An avowed ill mannered lout (Paxton) versus a man who doesn’t just resemble a Sunday school teacher, but who practices politics like the seminarian he is.
Ask Ken Paxton’s own supporters about his selfish moral infidelities and indictments. Ask about that stolen $1,000 pen. Or how he fired his employees after they reported him to the FBI for corruption, prompting a whistleblower lawsuit that stuck taxpayers with a $6.6 million bill. Oh, and ask about that impeachment that, though it did not end in conviction, was led by members of his own party.
Paxton voters know their guy reeks of moral rot. That he somehow earned millions while in public office. That his office delivered sweetheart deals in cases of child sexual abuse.
Paxton's supporters know all that because his runoff opponent, Senator John Cornyn, just spent tens of millions of dollars making sure that they know.
Paxton won anyway. As one man at a Paxton rally told a reporter, “We’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
The fish to be fried aren’t just Democrats but anyone who shows the slightest disloyalty to Donald Trump. Or even a hint of bipartisan pragmatism.
This one’s an easy call. The Houston Chronicle editorial board rejects Paxton’s self-serving depravity and his loyalty to Washington politics at the expense of everyday Texans. And we enthusiastically endorse his Democratic opponent, James Talarico.
Talarico, 37, is a former middle school teacher from Central Texas. In 2018, he flipped a Republican state House seat. While serving in the House, he studied for a master’s degree in divinity from a Presbyterian seminary. He looks like a grown-up Opie from the Andy Griffith Show. If his vibe were any more retro — any more earnest, any more squeaky-clean — he’d be in black-and-white, filmed at Desilu Studios.
Mr. Talarico is exactly what our state and our country need right now.
Optimism for a purple future: By tossing aside Cornyn, Trump and Republican primary voters have given Democrats a path out of the wilderness. Locked out of statewide office for over 30 years, they are eager to blockwalk the toss-up suburbs and open their pocketbooks. Talarico has already set an all-time record for fundraising for the first quarter of any U.S. Senate campaign ever — and that was before he faced such a slimy opponent, and before it seemed that Texas could possibly elect a Democrat to the Senate.
Now, some Democrats believe with Talarico at the top of the midterm ticket, they have begun an inexorable march to take back the state, to turn Texas blue. We hope that’s not the future of Texas. In our view, no party should have a lock on power. General elections should be an opportunity to hold our leaders accountable.
Surprisingly, Talarico agrees. Texas, he told us recently, “would look great in purple, because that's when you keep all politicians on their toes, right❓”
Forcing Republicans to compete — really compete — with Democrats, he said, would “force people to focus again on that 50-yard line of common-sense policies.”
In his appearances, his biggest applause line is still one he used when launching his campaign: “The biggest divide in our politics isn’t left versus right, it's top versus bottom.”
Those at the top, he says, too often abuse their power. That’s why he aims to ban congressional stock trading. To stop billionaires’ PAC money from having an outsized effect on our elections.
And to end gerrymandering that lets politicians pick their voters rather than the other way around.
The Democrat freely criticizes his own party for the “utter chaos” along the border “because the Biden administration, despite some good accomplishments, failed us when it came to border security.”
On education, he calls for an ambitious agenda, citing President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. That effort, he says, had obvious drawbacks but Democrats made a mistake when “we really stopped shooting for the moon.” His solution isn’t simply to throw more money at teachers. “We have a crisis of discipline issues in our schools,” he said, and addressing it requires better classroom management training. Spoken from a guy who himself faced a room full of unruly kids. No surprise then that he co-authored the bipartisan bill banning mobile phones in Texas public schools.
There was a time when Republicans and Democrats were united behind the push to improve our schools. Now both parties have retreated to their own comfortable positions of supporting teachers’ unions or pushing for vouchers. Talarico embodies a return to national ambition.
On energy, Talarico is an all-of-the-above guy. “I believe in protecting oil and gas jobs here in Texas, in addition to investing in renewables, keeping our edge in wind and solar and geothermal.”
And at a time when the Wall Street Journal editorial board has called out Paxton for “anti-business” lawsuits designed more to get headlines than protect consumers, Talarico is helping Democrats take back the middle ground. He wants to take on billionaires while also calling for pro-growth, free market policies. Overall he talks like a pro-business Democrat — one who wants to see economic growth and good-paying jobs.
“When Texas businesses succeed, Texas workers succeed.”
The anti-Paxton: These days we hear a lot of claims that the system is rigged against us, and we hear them from both parties.
The Editorial Board
Opinions from the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board
The Editorial Board is made up of opinion journalists with wide-ranging expertise.
The Democrat freely criticizes his own party for the “utter chaos” along the border “because the Biden administration, despite some good accomplishments, failed us when it came to border security.”
On education, he calls for an ambitious agenda, citing President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. That effort, he says, had obvious drawbacks but Democrats made a mistake when “we really stopped shooting for the moon.” His solution isn’t simply to throw more money at teachers. “We have a crisis of discipline issues in our schools,” he said, and addressing it requires better classroom management training. Spoken from a guy who himself faced a room full of unruly kids. No surprise then that he co-authored the bipartisan bill banning mobile phones in Texas public schools.
There was a time when Republicans and Democrats were united behind the push to improve our schools. Now both parties have retreated to their own comfortable positions of supporting teachers’ unions or pushing for vouchers. Talarico embodies a return to national ambition.
On energy, Talarico is an all-of-the-above guy. “I believe in protecting oil and gas jobs here in Texas, in addition to investing in renewables, keeping our edge in wind and solar and geothermal.”
And at a time when the Wall Street Journal editorial board has called out Paxton for “anti-business” lawsuits designed more to get headlines than protect consumers, Talarico is helping Democrats take back the middle ground. He wants to take on billionaires while also calling for pro-growth, free market policies. Overall he talks like a pro-business Democrat — one who wants to see economic growth and good-paying jobs.
“When Texas businesses succeed, Texas workers succeed.”
The anti-Paxton: These days we hear a lot of claims that the system is rigged against us, and we hear them from both parties.
Talarico said it to us and Paxton, we figure, is just as likely to claim that the fix is in. Paxton, 63, has been the Texas attorney general since 2015, and we have credited him for a few big victories, including his đź’˛1.4 billion settlement with Meta over alleged violations of privacy laws. Too often, however, the private lawyers hired by Paxton get rich while consumers end up with nothing.
And here’s the thing: We’ve got plenty of evidence that Paxton himself has been rigging the system. As Texas attorney general, Paxton used his office to help Nate Paul, an Austin developer and campaign donor, hide business shenanigans and fend off foreclosures. Paul returned the favor by remodeling Paxton’s house and employing a woman who Paxton, a married man, visited in late-night trysts. (His lawyers disputed the remodeling part.)
Paul eventually pleaded guilty to a felony. But somehow Paxton not only avoided removal following impeachment but emerged at the top of Texas’ Republican ticket, claiming to fight for ordinary folks. But what, besides MAGA and Trump, is Paxton fighting for❓
It’s hard to tell. While Talarico’s campaign talks about Texas, Team Paxton talks about Talarico.
Donald Trump is testing out nicknames to brand Talarico as un-Texan: “Tala-freak-o” the “weird vegan” who talks about “six genders.” These epithets twist real quotes from the Democrat’s past to maximum effect. Last week, Republicans ridiculed Talarico’s potato and egg taco order as proof of his low-testosterone, anti-meat agenda.
Mr/ Talarico’s response❓ “Our campaign basically runs on barbecue these days,” he told us. “But if these beef prices keep going up, we’re probably all going to be vegans at some point.”
That’s a good line. And it gets to a serious issue in Texas: Added costs of Trump’s tariffs, and labor shortages made worse by deportations, have BBQ joints shutting their doors.
Talarico is running a campaign for any Texan who bristles at $40-per-pound brisket. Meanwhile Paxton’s the guy who regularly takes globe-trotting junkets with a taxpayer-funded security detail.
What Paxton’s party says: While Talarico runs to build a coalition beyond Democrats, Paxton struggles to get support even from his fellow Republicans. They’re openly sick of him.
Here’s Derrick Wilson, chairman of the Texas Young Republican Federation, on social media: “He doesn’t fight for our priorities. He fights for his own ambition and desires. We’ll be fortunate so long as those things continue to overlap. But he is not a man of good moral fiber, he’s not a trustworthy man, and he’s not a man that would put the cause above himself.”
Here’s what Thom Tillis, senator of North Carolina, said on CNN, "To call Paxton 'ethically challenged' is to call Jeffrey Dahmer suffering from an eating disorder."
Here’s Jeff Leach, a state representative from Paxton’s own home base of Collin County, on the attorney general’s bungled prosecution of admitted child abuser Adam Hoffman: “A real and dangerous predator — a present threat to Texas children — will be as free as you and me.”
Leach even said he might summon Paxton before the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence to ask how Hoffman received “this kind of royal treatment” from the attorney general’s office.
Paxton’s dismal ethics are only surpassed by his rank incompetence. His office has a track record of fumbling on sex-trafficking cases. And while other Republicans join the bipartisan movement to tackle unaffordable health care, Paxton works to fire "woke doctors."
Last week Americans saw a flash of the genius that animates our constitution when Republicans in the Senate deep-sixed the president’s most outrageous requests. Should Paxton win, you can kiss that kind of independence goodbye.
So if you are the sort of person who truly cares about Trump getting taxpayer money for his ballroom and $1.8 billion to pay people who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, go ahead and vote for the president’s errand boy.
But if your standard is fidelity to the MAGA movement itself, and not to Trump, we suspect that if elected, Paxton will disappoint you. Look at his track record of self-enrichment and paramours. Don’t be surprised if today’s Paxton voters find themselves yearning for a political divorce in the near future — perhaps on biblical grounds.
Clean-cut, fresh-faced Talarico has a better shot at delivering for everyday people. Talarico aspires to “servant leadership,” a phrase Christians and others of faith know well.
“I may look like a choir boy,” he told us, “but I have no problem fighting when I need to, especially fighting for my constituents.”
Preach, brother, preach❗ We Texans need someone in the Senate who’ll stand up for us, who’ll fight corruption, and who’ll bring us together to get our country back on track. We need James Talarico.
And here’s the thing: We’ve got plenty of evidence that Paxton himself has been rigging the system. As Texas attorney general, Paxton used his office to help Nate Paul, an Austin developer and campaign donor, hide business shenanigans and fend off foreclosures. Paul returned the favor by remodeling Paxton’s house and employing a woman who Paxton, a married man, visited in late-night trysts. (His lawyers disputed the remodeling part.)
Paul eventually pleaded guilty to a felony. But somehow Paxton not only avoided removal following impeachment but emerged at the top of Texas’ Republican ticket, claiming to fight for ordinary folks. But what, besides MAGA and Trump, is Paxton fighting for❓
It’s hard to tell. While Talarico’s campaign talks about Texas, Team Paxton talks about Talarico.
Donald Trump is testing out nicknames to brand Talarico as un-Texan: “Tala-freak-o” the “weird vegan” who talks about “six genders.” These epithets twist real quotes from the Democrat’s past to maximum effect. Last week, Republicans ridiculed Talarico’s potato and egg taco order as proof of his low-testosterone, anti-meat agenda.
Mr/ Talarico’s response❓ “Our campaign basically runs on barbecue these days,” he told us. “But if these beef prices keep going up, we’re probably all going to be vegans at some point.”
That’s a good line. And it gets to a serious issue in Texas: Added costs of Trump’s tariffs, and labor shortages made worse by deportations, have BBQ joints shutting their doors.
Talarico is running a campaign for any Texan who bristles at $40-per-pound brisket. Meanwhile Paxton’s the guy who regularly takes globe-trotting junkets with a taxpayer-funded security detail.
What Paxton’s party says: While Talarico runs to build a coalition beyond Democrats, Paxton struggles to get support even from his fellow Republicans. They’re openly sick of him.
Here’s Derrick Wilson, chairman of the Texas Young Republican Federation, on social media: “He doesn’t fight for our priorities. He fights for his own ambition and desires. We’ll be fortunate so long as those things continue to overlap. But he is not a man of good moral fiber, he’s not a trustworthy man, and he’s not a man that would put the cause above himself.”
Here’s what Thom Tillis, senator of North Carolina, said on CNN, "To call Paxton 'ethically challenged' is to call Jeffrey Dahmer suffering from an eating disorder."
Here’s Jeff Leach, a state representative from Paxton’s own home base of Collin County, on the attorney general’s bungled prosecution of admitted child abuser Adam Hoffman: “A real and dangerous predator — a present threat to Texas children — will be as free as you and me.”
Leach even said he might summon Paxton before the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence to ask how Hoffman received “this kind of royal treatment” from the attorney general’s office.
Paxton’s dismal ethics are only surpassed by his rank incompetence. His office has a track record of fumbling on sex-trafficking cases. And while other Republicans join the bipartisan movement to tackle unaffordable health care, Paxton works to fire "woke doctors."
Last week Americans saw a flash of the genius that animates our constitution when Republicans in the Senate deep-sixed the president’s most outrageous requests. Should Paxton win, you can kiss that kind of independence goodbye.
So if you are the sort of person who truly cares about Trump getting taxpayer money for his ballroom and $1.8 billion to pay people who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, go ahead and vote for the president’s errand boy.
But if your standard is fidelity to the MAGA movement itself, and not to Trump, we suspect that if elected, Paxton will disappoint you. Look at his track record of self-enrichment and paramours. Don’t be surprised if today’s Paxton voters find themselves yearning for a political divorce in the near future — perhaps on biblical grounds.
Clean-cut, fresh-faced Talarico has a better shot at delivering for everyday people. Talarico aspires to “servant leadership,” a phrase Christians and others of faith know well.
“I may look like a choir boy,” he told us, “but I have no problem fighting when I need to, especially fighting for my constituents.”
Preach, brother, preach❗ We Texans need someone in the Senate who’ll stand up for us, who’ll fight corruption, and who’ll bring us together to get our country back on track. We need James Talarico.
The Editorial Board
Opinions from the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board
The Editorial Board is made up of opinion journalists with wide-ranging expertise.
Labels: Houston Chronicle, Ken Paxton, Senator John Cornyn, Texas
posted by Juliana L'Heureux | 7:25 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home